N.C. judge testifies in death penalty case
FAYETTEVILLE (AP) — A former prosecutor in the case of a death row prisoner who's challenging his sentence under North Carolina's Racial Justice Act says race may have been an unconscious factor in jury selection, but not a significant one.
District Court Judge John Dickson is a former assistant district attorney in Cumberland County. He handled jury selection in the 1994 murder trial of Marcus Robinson. Robinson is a black man convicted of killing a white teenager in a robbery in 1991.
Robinson is seeking to have his death sentence changed to life in prison without parole.
Dickson testified Monday under cross-examination that he believes anyone can be guilty of unconscious racism, but that it never was a significant factor in the selection of jurors in Robinson's trial.
This hearing addresses Robinson's claim that race played a major role in prosecutors' decisions to reject potential jurors who were black.
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